Machinations of A Hunter Cat
by The Bud
Summary: Jubilee finds several XMen in an uncomfortable position. Then more.
1. Chapter 1

Caution: I don't own this nor much of anything else and as usual, the only money I make comes from making pizza or tacos and cleaning up after immature wankers.

Machinations of A Hunter Cat.

I don't know what brought him back, nor why he turned back to his old ways again. Perhaps he was just toying with us, stringing us along to get us where he wanted us. Maybe he just got tired of playing. Psylocke, Betsy, never wanted him here, after he gutted her the way he did, there was blood dripping from the walls as well as his hooked little claws.

My name is Jubilation Lee, and I'm going to die. This all started yesterday, I don't know when, I wasn't here, but I'll never forget seeing Emma's body across the banister. She was completely eviscerated, completely. The blood from the gaping wound on what was her neck had sprayed the walls and as she died, dribbled down her upside down face and dried in brown streaks. Her eyes were dim and cloudy, and her blood had stained her hair before congealing in a pool below her head. Red was not her colour.

As I walked through the old mansion, there was the faint smell of an old fashioned cigar permeating the air, as well as the corpses of a dozen students littering the kitchen alone. The crunching of spilt corn chips resounded off the walls with my every step. Then, out the back door, there was Scott, at least I think it was Scott, it's hard to be sure with his whole face torn off. It was on the ground in a lump with his visor about three feet way, but like I said, it was hard to tell.

"I'm using my pyrotechnics to light my way through the sub basement, I've got to contact somebody here. Anybody. I can see that he's been here, with the bloody hand -prints and everything smashed to pieces. I swear I can hear him purring. I used to have nightmares about this, when I was younger, But Jean isn't here to calm me down. She's in Bermuda on her honeymoon.

I start thinking that if Logan were here, this wouldn't be happening. I wouldn't be crouching past Beast's tattered body, Hank wouldn't be ripped from limb to limb.

Earlier, I remember passing Bobby, half frozen in the pool, and I say half because his top half was there, the other half is here, along with one hand clutching a National Geographic. It's almost funny, being an issue on prehistoric animals. They were all caught off guard, but how did one man do this?

I get an answer almost immediately, There is a dead Reaver on the floor, Half human, have machine. Beast must have got him before somebody got him. The purring, nearly a guttural growl grows stronger, he must know I'm here, that he left one of us alive and he's come to fix it.

"I know you're here." He calls out. "I can smell you half-pint."

I try to make as little noise as possible as I step over Warren's dismembered wings, and trip, finding myself looking into his cold, lifeless blue eye. I didn't find his head.

Then he's on me. I flair off my fireworks and blind him momentarily and I run, but not far before he gets hold of my hair and kisses me deeply before raising his claws to strike. I brace myself for the blow, the blood and the pain, but it never comes. He's being held telekinetically in place. Someone did contact the honeymooning couple and the next thing I know, Logan's claws are out and Victor, the man who had terrorized my dreams, is bleeding in my face.

She cannot control Victors mind, no one can, but she does use his own claws against him and cuts him deeply in places no man would want defiled. Logan tells me to run, but I can't, I just collapse into his arms crying. I look up to see Rogue flying in too, Using her powers to suck the strength out of Victor as he's hauled to the containment units, where Gambit had put the remaining students to keep them safe. The force fields would keep out anything, unfortunately, Gambit himself didn't make it unscathed, he lost his leg to a Reaver, getting the children in safe.

Jean and Rogue had reaped the Reavers, their parts littering the once serene gardens, Logan just held me and let me cry and just the fact that Victor's still alive means this could all happen again. I wish they'd kill him.


	2. Those Who Can Survive

Hey, you! This is to disclaim my ownership of this. Most of the fodder for these chapters comes from X-Men # 28-33. 1994 era. Some comes from later Wolverine books, some of it, hey I'm just a sick little person.

Those who can Survive, do.

"It's been weeks since that monster slashed his way through the mansion, killing nearly everybody in his path. I know he's being held below us until SHIELD can build the containment unit that will be used to house him But, I just don't know about this, I just don't feel save with that thing in this house, I suppose that things will get better, seeing as I leave for my new school in a week." Jubilee sighs over her coffee mug brimming with home made hot chocolate to the man she's come to regard as her father.

"It could, Jubes." He tells her as he strokes her hair. "Speaking of school, you need anything, Squirt?" He stands up to heave the tray of food to be delivered to that brutal animal lurking in the cells below our feet. "Jean's picked you up some things."

"Just for you to come with me." He thinks I'm joking, but I'm not. I keep waking up at night, sweaty, confused, cold, just thinking about what he'd do if he escaped again. I keep thinking of Scott's face, congealing on the ground, I keep thinking about the bloody wings, arms and eyes that littered this house. I don't know how Scott survived having his face ripped away, how he didn't bleed to death astounded Jean. She said something to the effect of the Reaver that mutilated him; more burned his face off, the very act cauterizing the wound. I never even checked to see that he was breathing, I was sure he was dead. I can't even look at him anymore, he's hideous with what could be done to cover his face, needless to say, and that one loose eye bothers me. At least that suits him.

He can't eat, his jaw had to be removed, and he's missing several fingers. Just the loud, raspy sound of him breathing sickens me and I want to throw up every time I hear him try to speak in his new gurgling, moaning voice.. I hear the tapping of his cane on the floor, he must be coming, and Warren must be behind him, I can hear him dragging his foot. I remember how I couldn't find the rest of Warren's body when I tripped over his wings, that's because Rogue found him later in a frenzied tug-of-war contest between to Reavers, with Warren as the rope. He looks like a flesh hungry zombie with that one eye, his ripped up stomach and dragging foot.

"I'll make an excuse for you if you want to bail." Logan's voice draws me out of my morbid thoughts

"Huh?" I ask distracted as I look at him blankly. With him spreading the strawberry preserves on the toast for Creed, my mind flips back to all the blood that was cleaned off the kitchen downstairs. It's useable, and more convenient, but none of us can stand to go in yet. We've all haunted visions of the kids that should be bickering over the last bowl of cereal in there, not laying interred in the cold dirt.

"I know the way Scott and Warren are disturbs you. I'll make an excuse for you if you want to leave." He repeats.

"No. I just feel safer with you. Too many "Night of the Living Dead" type movies, y' know?" I tell him as I hear the squeak of crutches down the hall. It has to be Gambit because all of the surviving students with families were packed up and sent home until the school gets back to running, and that won't be until Creed is dealt with. Gambit lost a leg trying to save some of the student's lives, down in the very cells that now holds the animal responsible.

"Are you sure? I've got to go feed Creed." He looks at me with a worried look across is face. The same face I saw covered in all kinds of things by that days end. Things I wouldn't have even thought would cling to human skin.

I remember this one girl who went into hysterics when SHIELD escorted her through the house to retrieve her belongings. Her brother was slit open from top to bottom and honestly, he looked like someone had tried to eat him, I wonder what SHIELD told the families, I wonder who will come back. I know who won't.

"Jubilee?" I hear Warren's voice call out to me. "Are you alright?" I forgot that Warren could talk. He doesn't say much anymore and avoids mirrors due to the gruesome damage to his once pretty face, but at least he doesn't gurgle. "You're just staring off into nowhere."

'I'm fine." I tell him as I try not to stare. I've seen so much in my life, things that look a lot worse than these two, but seeing how they look now, and then, it's too much right now. "Just thinking about school." I lie. Jean comes in from trying to talk with Creed and calm him down; Telepathic persuasion no longer works with him, not after Logan popped a claw into Creeds head.

Scott's demeanor instantly changed as he turns towards her the one ear he's left. After we buried Emma, the only time Scott even comes out of his funk is when he hears Jean's voice. He can no longer smell, but he remembers. I know what memories must flood through his mind, all the loves he's had. Sometimes what he sees must be the way Emma was with his kids, but without tear ducts, the man can't cry.

His kids were with Gambit and Gambit's children when this happened, so they made it through with only a couple stitches, but it must hard.

He mutters and pops something that sounds like "Ah uh I oh ea ow" With open congested sounding breaths between each word.

"Scott." She tells him exasperated. "Use the electronic voice phone I gave you yesterday. By the way, I might be able to form you a new jaw from a new bone paste that's just come out. Wipe your drool."

She tries to sound calm and put together, but after everything she's been neck deep in, everything she washed off her body that stained her bathtub so badly she had to replace it, I don't know how she could be.

I don't know how she can forget so easily what a Reaver that she didn't see, that she somehow couldn't sense got the drop on her as she checked over Scott's body. She thought she saw him breathing, she went to help and a Reaver cut her back open so badly if she were a human, she almost certainly would have ended up buried as the rest of the students. The Phoenix force in her welled so brightly, it incinerated the Reaver and melted Iceman out of the pool. The wound healed instantly, and the scar looks pretty cool, spiraling on her right shoulder and curving to her left hip, ending in another spiral, but just knowing how it got there and what she did to another living being, rips her up. The act imprinted the smoky image of a phoenix onto the wall and parts of Scott's body, as well as a vast portion of the lawn. It horrified Rogue so much that she refused to ever talk about what she was witness to. We just hear her screaming in her sleep every night.

And electronic buzzing starts that Logan just hates with his over sensitive hearing. He actually has to go outside to get away from it.

"I would like to eat now." The thing buzzes against Scott's throat. I'm completely creeped out and I know it's shallow, but just looking at them makes me think that I'm on the menu. Because he has no jaw and no face to chew with, he's got a feeding tube attached to his belly button. He's not learned how to fill it himself yet, partially because of his being one eyed and partly because he hasn't gotten used to only having a few fingers yet.

"I'll get it for you, Scott, but you're going to have to learn to do this." I hear Jean admonish Scott as I leave the room. I try and catch up with Logan, he thought he was being slick, thinking I wouldn't notice that he took the breakfast tray with him. There's a secret elevator in the wall that Gambit used to get the children he could to safety Sometimes I think about when that elevator was installed. I was fourteen and Sabretooth has been reprimanded into our custody, Professor X had it installed so that we could get to the basement in under two minutes if a situation warranted it.

One time, it did. Psylocke would have been dead and possibly eaten if Beast hadn't of gotten down there when he did. What Creed did to that woman was beyond any reason. It could have been in retaliation to Jean and what she did to that monster to show him whose boss. I wasn't in the room, but I saw the tapes. He was like a drug addict doing whatever he could to get his fix. He had called it "The Glow" and he'd killed before to get it. After what she did, extra measures were put up not just to keep people in, but to keep people out as well. A useful thing when there are people like Creed and to a greater extent, Jean Grey about. I know I'll never get on her bad side.

I get down to where Creed is held. I hear his crass words, his brutal demeanor coming through with every syllable.

Y' know I'm gonna here out of here, Runt." He growls as he starts gnawing on his food.

"I will keep my promise."

Logan clears his throat, looking to the side in disinterest, scratching the back of his head. "Eight years ago, that could have gotten you a cam of whup ass, Creed, but I don't think your going to do anything now, Plus, I've heard it all before, come up with some new threats." Logan said as though he was tired of everything Sabretooth, shaking his head. "Jean's going to come down after she feeds Cyclops and try something called memory therapy; it's not the glow, but with a telepath of her skill, she might be able to induce some pleasant memories, and calm you down."

"After what you did to me? Ha! You know they can't mess with my head no more!" Sabretooth balked.

"I think Jean may be able to correct that flaw, jerk." Logan says as he lights up s cigar. "Too bad you can't have one." Logan smiles an impish smile

"Ohhh… I'll get one alright, I'll pick the pack off your cold, fleshless corpse, after I have my way with your wife." Creed tells him with his eyes flashing red and spit foaming at the sides of his mouth. "Your little Jubilee's all grown up too, maybe I'll let you live long enough to watch her squat out my youngun."

"Keep pushing, yer getting' there." Logan growls. I know what's going on, Creed pushes Logan, Logan pushes Creed, sooner or later, that shield between the two is coming down and the two of them are going to sling blood and tissue from one end of the room to the other. I'd better get help.

"Jean!" I wheeze as I get to the kitchen "Those two are at it again!"

She looks up at me from attaching Scott's food bag, the bulge of Scott's tongue poking through the elastic scarf around the bottom part of his face. "What?"

"Please! Somebody needs to get down there! I don't want that monster loose again!" I plead, as I know I'm about to cry.

"Do you want me to go?" Scott's microphone buzzes. It seems odd to see a man with no real face wearing a pair of glasses, but because he still has an eye, he still has optic blasts and thinks he can do some good.

"Jubilee, can you take Meg, Alex, Rebecca and the rest to my house? Use the tunnels, I'll meet you there, Rogue will probably go with you." She tells me as she ignores Scott's attempt at being a martyr. "Oliver shouldn't mind helping." She looks at me sweetly. "Don't worry, Jubilee, Logan's much to smart to let Creed out."

But I'm worried anyways. I know that the evacuation is just a precaution, but one that tells me she's not really all that sure that Logan will remain in control of himself. I go and do as she says, but the tunnel goes right underneath the containment rooms, we can hear every threat and every word uttered by the dueling pair.

"You think she doesn't think of him while she's ripping gouges into your back? I remember how you looked at her when she was with him, Runt!" I hear Creed bellow. I don't know why Jean hasn't made it down there yet, but I can only assume that she's getting Scott and Warren somewhere safe and out of her way. "Your gonna be looking at her and me that way after I nail ya to the wall and make you watch!"

"Keep it up all you want, Creed, but I ain't letting you out." Logan seems to be enjoying torturing Creed, as he puffs on that cigar. "You know as well as I do what she can do to you." That's all we hear as we pass under them, but all I can think about are the what ifs, What if Creed gets out and does everything he claims he'll do. Could he do more than he already has? Logan doesn't sound like he's going to put up with the threats too much longer. We get to her house pretty quickly and Rogue, receiving the mental O.K. from Jean to make the children something to eat.

Rogue was the only one not physically harmed in this whole thing, but I think the possibility that she could has lost her children and her husband made her think. She's been looking for places near by, a place where the X-Men could be in every part of her life, but the danger to her family is weakened to a dull point. I saw the report on how she managed to locate Gambit's leg; two Reavers were playing eye baseball with it. With all of them around, I don't know how they missed me; I guess they thought everybody was dead or dying and never even bothered to make a second run.

Rogue was out trying to find Kitty and Peter when this all happened, somebody took them. We know where they are now, intensive care for Peter and critical care for Kitty, but we never found out who took them, nor why. Rachel, who went along to help, never came home at all.

"Jubilee?" Rogue's sweet southern voice rings out through my minds fog. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I just can't help but think what's going on back there." I tell her. I truly am, after seeing the marks left on the wall after Jean was attacked, I don't know if even Logan will still be there to greet us. I don't know if our own bodies are going to start pulling apart cell by cell while we are still conscience enough to know our own pain and mortality.

"I think that Logan can handle the situation, sugar." She smiles at me so sweetly as she hands me a peanut butter sandwich. "I didn't think you'd like the hummus and bean sprout she had here. What is this? Sunflower bread?" She laughs trying to lighten the mood of the house.

"Marie, can I ask you something without sounding ungrateful or disrespectful?" I ask.

"Sure darlin'." She tells me, setting down what has to be Logan's whole milk.

"I always thought of Jean as my mother, but I don't know, she frightens me now. I still love her, she's still Jean, but… Different." I explain in hushed tones so that no child can hear and repeat what I say. "You know?"

"I do know." Rogue looks away. "I'm more frightened of that monster in the basement than Jean though. He's got no humanity left." She sighs and lightens the tone of her voice. "Look, Jubes, what Ah saw, horrified me. When Ah close my eyes, it's all Ah can see, Ah won't ever forget it, but most of what Ah saw wasn't the Reaver melt and float away, it was that Jean did whatever necessary to protect Scott and get him out of there alive, despite the cost to herself. If you still find yourself uncomfortable, just remember that Jean helped raise you, and that Warren paid for your college and Scott fixed up your first car for you." She looked around nervously. "We are your family, take the good with the bad."

"Do you think that Scott will ever look normal again? I ask fidgeting

"Maybe not, but I know that Jean is trying to hone her abilities to be able to regenerate his face. Things rebuilt molecule by molecule take practice, and a lot of patience and energy." She looks away. I can tell she's a little bothered by the memories too. "Maybe something can be done for Remy too."

"I just want Sabretooth out of here." I break down and cry. "Look at us! Most of us are dead, the rest look like flesh hungry monsters, I can't take this!"

"Shh! Baby!" Rogue says as she smoothes my black sleek hair. "Everything will get better, everything won't be normal, but over time, things will feel like normal!"

"Why did they try to eat us?" I wail. "I can't get over that they tried to eat us!"

"They didn't try to eat you, Jubilee. Victor just tried to kill you." She rationalizes my fear. "They only tried to eat some of the other students, and Scott's face." I know she's just trying to make me feel better so I'll stop blubbering and don't frighten the children.

"I don't see how that helps." I sniffle and try not to laugh. The familiar shuffle of Warren's limp foot comes up from downstairs. "Warren's here. We can get answers from him."

"Hi, Warren!" Rogue calls out. "Have you news for us?"

"Victor threatened to have his way with every girl here, so Jean telekinetically ripped off… Jubilee, I didn't see you there." He tries to smile. "Marie, the kitchen?"

"My kids are working on a three-d puzzle in there." She tells him blushing. Just the thought of what must have happened embarrasses a southern girl. "The only place they aren't running around is downstairs. I've told them to stay up here."

Looking at my twisted face, Warren says the only thing I guess he could to make what I overheard any better, but it doesn't. "Don't worry, it had grown back."

They walk to downstairs and I can't help but be a little grossed out by that dragging leg and the pouch I know to be his colostomy bag. And by hearing him say "She just melted it off, I never saw flesh drip like candle wax before." I put my head down on the table for just a second, but it must have been longer because when I look up, Remy's oldest boy is telling me it's time to go home. "Are you sick?" He asks me. He's not much younger than I was my first encounter with the X-Men. I assure him I'm not, but the haunted look in his eyes tells me there's more he wants to say. So I make small talk.

"Have you found out what your powers are yet?" I enquire, hoping to break the ice.

"Not yet." He says as he walks with me. "Are they coming back?"

"Who?" I'm stumped.

"Those metal men." He looks at me like I'm stupid. "I saw them rip a guy's eye out right by me."

"I don't think they are, but I could be wrong." I tell him. "Hasn't your mother talked to you about this?"

"Yes, but you know how parents don't want you to worry. I just wanted the truth." He replies. "What Sabretooth did to Ms. Frost was terrible. What he was going to do to Alex was worse."

"How did he get away?" I'm not sure he wants to tell me.

"My dad snatched him and ran. Kicked Sabretooth real good while he did it too." The boy smiled his father's loopy smile.

We go back under where Creed is kept, I know no one is in there with him, but he still screams anyways. "I'll get my pretty piece!" he bellows, I don't think he cares if anyone can hear him. "I'll get you all turned into human scum and come back to pick my teeth with your bones!" I can hear him pounding on the walls of his cell. The last time he was a prisoner here, he tempered himself to the pain of running through the force fields that held him and managed to escape. I'm so afraid he'll do it again as I hear the distinct sounds of the electricity searing his flesh.

The sound of Creed ranting and screaming fades as we get back into the main house, all I can hear is just faint murmurs, much as when I was small and my foster parents didn't want me overhearing their problems.

"Hello, children, and Jubilee!" Jean smiles cheerfully while she changes the valve on Scott's drainage tube. I know she's just trying to calm us down, keep us lucid.

"Why are you doing that here?" I ask, trying not to be disgusted.

"Because you guys were supposed to head upstairs and get your things instead of heading here." She tells me as though what she's doing is a normal and everyday thing. "Marie thought it best that you stay at my place overnight."

"I… I think that's a good idea." I tell her honestly. Sleeping outside this house would do me some good because maybe I could actually sleep. "What then?"

"Then, Victor should be in his new home." She looks at me so kindly. I know why we're over there. She's worried he could escape. She's worried of what he could do, what she would have to do to him to keep us safe. I wonder what kind of mother she would have made to her own children.

"How's Logan?" I'm worried. I don't see him in here and he usually watches Scott and Jean like a hawk.

"His pride is a little hurt, and I won't lie, a fight broke out, but he's none the worse for wear." I can see her fighting back tears, I don't know what for, but they are there. "He's gone off to nurse his ego."

"ould oo ike e o owe ih e?" Scott's gurgling voice fills the makeshift O.R. Room.

"I thought he was asleep!" I gasp jumping back.

"He is." She bluntly puts. "This is called a wakeful period. In two hours, he won't even remember talking to you."

"You didn't tell me why you were doing this in here." I remind her. Every X-Man seems to have a knack for subject dismissal.

"The rooms are still a little full." She tells me simply. I had thought that everyone was buried, but then I think about Kitty, Peter and Rachel.

"Oh, Jean, no. When?" I cry.

"They are fine, just very sick and home. Except…" She looks away. I know who it is, I know Scott doesn't know yet.

"Where did they find her?" I start to weep. This has to be hard for her.

"Outside the FOH building. She'd been beaten to death." She looks away at Scott. "We don't know what they did to make her simply human, but they did. They did a lot to her."

"What about Scott? How do you think he'll be taking this?" I try to comfort her. Her body is so very warm; I almost can't even hug her.

"He doesn't have to know yet." She tells me, patting my hand. "She was a good part of his world."

"What about Cable and the rest of the kids?" I ask almost shocked that she thought she had the right to decide what Scott should and should not know.

"Jubilee." She looks at me sternly from behind the mask strapped across her face. "I am not deciding for him." She must have picked up on my thoughts. "He will know, he has to find out, I'm not like Charles was, I merely meant not right now. There is much that has to be done to prepare him for this." She sighs. "I have to do the autopsy, there is a world of things I'd rather do than have to cut open my own daughter, I want to spare Scott as much pain as possible. Cable already knows."

I hear boots thumping behind me and I know it's got to be Logan.

"You spend much more time with him, I'm gonna start getting jealous." He jokes as he comes in. "Hi Jubilee." He tells me as he plants a kiss atop my head.

"Does everybody have to be in here while I do this?" Jean shakes her head. "At least put masks on. Glad to see you're done sulking." She adds.

"What did he do to you?!" I exclaim as I notice that some of the ragged edges of his flesh have not yet knitted back together. For him to not become whole yet, those wounds must have run bone deep.

"These are nothing, Pumpkin." He dismisses the injuries. "What was great was seeing him grab ol' Scotty's feeding bag. That junk started…"

"But Scott never went down there!" I scream at him. "You let him out!" I pound my fists against his chest as he tries to hold my sobbing figure. "He could have gotten to us again, and you would have allowed it just to satisfy your blasted ego!

"Calm down, Jubilee!" He begs me as I lay sobbing in his strong arms; my own balled up hands still beating him. "I never let him out! There was a malfunction with the shield, A little ways after Jean walked in, and the thing freaked out and blew up!" He lets me bury my worried face into his chest. "We stopped him, didn't we?"

"But how!" I blubber furiously "What makes you think you can do it again?" I feel like I'm just a little kid and safe again when I'm in his warm protective arms.

"Can you take this outside so I can concentrate on this?" Jean asks as she has enough of my paranoia, or she just doesn't want to think of what was done.

"Don't get snippety with me, Red, or you'll be all by your lonesome tonight." Logan playfully threatens. I can't help but find myself envious that she gets to be safe in his arms just about every night.

"Fine, just get out, He's about to be exposed in a minute and you don't want to see that." She adds. "You have to sleep at home anyways to keep the children comfortable."

She doesn't know how lucky she is. And I know what she means by comfortable. She wants him there to kick Creed's ass should the need arise. He gives her a peck on her forehead and I find myself seething inwards.

"Don't worry!" She laughs. "Scott and I can keep things in line here until Bridge comes to get him." I know that doesn't make Logan too comfortable, I know he hates the idea, but he knows that it's what's best. "Besides, I've got work to do tonight, as well as talk to Scott. She tells him with overly pained eyes. I can see a little wetness form around Logan's eyes too. He and Rachel had always been close, more so these past few months before she died.

As we walk out, I ask him again how they contained him, but he refuses to say.

"I'll tell you after he's gone." He tells me as he looks back nervously at Jean and Scott. I look back too and notice a large bandage on Jean's arm I hadn't noticed, partly because that arm was away from me, as well as a matching one on Scott's abdomen.

I've a horrible, nauseating feeling wash over me as we walk away.


	3. Unexpected Revelations

Just from reading any other story, to tell you that I don't own this is redundant. Please don't sue.

Unexpected Revelations.

"Wolvie?" A little, but oddly grown up voice quietly calls out as the young woman sneaks up to the couch that Logan is silently, and not very convincingly, pretending to sleep on. "I know you're awake. I couldn't sleep."

"I know, half-pint." He growls lowly as he sits up. He never even took his uniform off to sleep; he must be waiting for trouble. "You've been to that fridge at least a dozen times tonight, what's bothering you?"

"Warren is sleeping in the guest room with me." She says, but Logan is smarter than that, he knows instantly what's wrong.

"You didn't come out here to get away from old buzz saw. What's really wrong." He asks, he already knows, but her hearing herself say it would help her face her fear head on.

"You caught me." She sighs as she settles next to him on his couch, placing her head on his supportive shoulders, and he wraps one arm around her as he's done countless times during her youth. "Do you really think Scott and Jean can keep Creep in line until Fury gets here?"

"Without a doubt." He comforts her, kissing her atop her worried little head. "And the sooner Fury gets here, the sooner I can sleep in my own bed." He grins at her as Remy's Cajun accent comes down the stairs, indicating another fall out of Logan's impossibly high bed. "Jean likes it that high." He jokes.

"I don't really want to know why." She shudders as she hears Gambit hopping around on his one leg. "Speaking of Jean, why is she spending so much time fixing Scott's face and so little fixing Gambit?"

"I know what you're getting at, Jubilee, and stop. You know that Scott's injuries are more life threatening that Gambit's lost leg, and she's been talking to all sorts of professionals about him too." He looks away. "There's only so much one person can do."

"I didn't mean to anger you!" She backs away shocked. "But just from you going off on me like that, you sound concerned more than you let on."

"You always were a perceptive kid, Jubes." He looks back at her through one eye as he pats her hand. "I need a beer, Ya want one?"

"You know I do." She replies, following him to his secret stash hidden from Remy and more likely than not, Jean.

"Why are you so worried about them?" She questions carefully so as not to reveal her true intentions. "She loves you."

"Jean has always had a spot in her heart for broken people. I think that's why she fell in love with Scott the first time, and eventually, me." He tells her as he drinks his can down. "I know though just from being privy to her memories, she's loved me from the get go."

"I think you're perfect." She tells him, giving him a tiny hug before popping open her own drink.

Out of nowhere, Remy appears silently, quickly and almost expectedly in the kitchen. "I hate yoa bed. Gimme a beer." He pauses to think. "When was de las 'ime you hear from de mansion?"

"About an hour ago." Logan swallows another mouthful. "Jean was just starting Rachel's, you know. Scott wanted to be there."

"I suppose Jean's Scott's security blanket." Gambit tries to make light of the situation. "Whose turn is it to go back and check on the monster?"

"Yours. Rogue should be ready to head back about now." Logan smiled his famous sucks to be you smile. "I have the shift in two hours."

"Bah!" Remy exclaims as he wipes his face clean on his sleeve. "Y'know, If you a Canadian, shouldn't you hide the Canadian brew from me?"

"I do. Now get going." He mock challenges. "Jubilee, if you want, you can take my bed, I'm sure Rogue won't mind sharing if Warren's snoring bothers you so much."

"Will you come with me?" She pleads. "Just for a little bit, like when you and Jean used to talk me to sleep?"

"Jubilee, you ain't no little kid no more." He tells her nervously. "I don't think…"

"Logan, I won't try anything, you're like my father and Jean would kill the both of us, painfully." She smiles the kind of smile only a woman can.

"I'll sit with you five minutes, then Rogue can talk you to sleep." He gives in. "And I know you wouldn't." He looks around to see if anyone is still left awake to hear. "And yes she would. I'll tell you the story sometime about when her and Storm caught be talking to some girl at Harry's"

"How is Storm?" Jubilee asks genuinely. "I haven't heard from her yet."

"She's not as well as she would like." He admits. "That whole experience with Nimrod really threw her for a loop, but she's getting through it."

"That was forever ago!" Jubilee laughs slightly. "Hasn't anything helped her yet?"

"I ain't gonna talk to you if you're gonna be mean." Logan stood to walk away. "How long do you think it will take you to get over what Victor did and stop clinging to us like a life line?"

"Wait, don't go!" She begs. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it the way it came out!" She says as she pulls on his arm. "I know she means as much to you as Jean. That was wrong of me. And you are right, I don't know that I'll ever get over this." She wavers for a minute choking back tears. "Now how do I get in this bed?"

"There's a step ladder under it. It's really comfortable when you get in." He tells her gruffly as he pulls it out. "You're taller than me, so this won't be a problem." He laughs. "Jean just floats up there and pulls me up."

"Like this?" She asks as she pulls him up and accidentally, her lips grace his chin. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."

"You're skating on thin ice here." He warns in a low, sensual growl. "I'd better go. Rogue should be here soon." And he goes to leave. "Jubilee, I care a lot about you, believe me, but I love my wife, and I trust her, and I know that she loves me. I won't betray that." He turns to see a young boy starting on his journey to become a young man, who still seeks for his father. "Oscar!" He exclaims almost in shock. "What you saw… I… we didn't…"

"What were you doing then if you aren't embarrassed?" Oscar inquires in his rich southern tones. "I'm going to go wait for my mom." And he leaves, but not before shooting a very disapproving look reminiscent of his mother. "I won't tell Ms. Grey 'cause Ah know Ah'm just a kid and she won't want to believe me, but you should."

"That kid is too grown up to be Gambit's kid." Logan shakes his head as Jubilee places a hand on his well- muscled shoulder. "Jubilee, please don't touch me right now." He snarls as he moves her hand and walks on.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry!" She cries after him as she sinks her head unto her tiny hands.

When he gets out to the living room, he starts to shake and cough as he leans against the wall.

Elsewhere.

During the changing of the guards, the one held below this old mansion as husband and wife pass as ships in the night, a monster lurks. He knows that two minutes and two minutes only. He can get out, of that, he's almost sure and almost has to be good enough. Even with one leg, Gambit will pose a problem, unless he can be dispatched by surprise, taken unaware, a quick blow to the head should do that, Creed wants him out of the way, not dead. Yet.

"O.K, Creed. Your midnight sitters here." Gambit pauses. "Where are y…" But he doesn't finish his thought before a blackened arm takes him down. Gambit doesn't feel a thing now, but in about thirty minutes the pain will be close to excruciating.

As he makes his way down the hall, he can smell two of the fragrances he hungers after most, blood and separately the aroma of a woman. He also detects a bonus, Cyclops. "This aught to be fun." He smirks to himself, before Cyclops, Scott Summers was ruined, he was excellent at judo and even better at aikido, enough so to have taken down a feral Wolverine. If he's still half as good, this is going to be a fun fight. Creed knows he had a blast yesterday sparring with old one –eye as Scott attempted to shield that uppity Jean Grey from Creed's sharp claws.

"You still think you can protect her?" Creed purrs as he crawls up behind Scott, Creed's large frame dwarfing Scott's six foot three, slender build. Creed's body blocks the light, leaving him cloaked in shadow as his cat-like eyes shine out. "Don't bother calling for help, you won't live that long."

Creed picks the man up, who easily manages to flip out of the shirt in Creed's grasp, and just as quickly sweeps Creed's feet from under him. The thump of bone hitting floor calls Jean's attention as she comes running to see Creed reverse his position, poised to rip what's left of Cyclops to meat strips, the remnants of his scarf giving way and exposing his open facial cavity. His breathing shallowly rasping through the hole in his throat, much like a broken radiator.

"Scott!" Jean calls out as she rushes to his aid, sending out a psychic signal out to whomever can respond. Creed instantly abandons Scott in favor of getting a chance at the red-head, but he never gets there as his molecules start separating, stretching out into singularity before altogether dissipating into glittering cosmic confetti, the water hissing away as though the room were a hot griddle, the oxygen burns away in her contained little bubble. She knows now that she could recreate him from a single bit of anything left of him, but she doesn't care to.

She falls to her knees in shock as Scott crawls over to comfort her shaking body, his features melting back into place, much as they were before they were burned off, and he finds that he can speak. "What did you do?" He say's gratingly, as he tests out his new jaw and facial muscles. He finds he can smell now, he can smell death on her, ash and vanilla fills his new nose. "Honey, it will be O.K." It's been over a month since he could speak, but that's all he can think to say

Morning comes and Logan sits shocked as Gambit walks again without a crutch and Warren can look in a mirror again, none of the dead have returned, perhaps she couldn't, perhaps she thought that best left to God. "Logan?" A voice tries to snap him out of his daze. "Logan, you better answer me, mister!"

"What?" He asks as he notices Jubilee standing so close to him. "What could you possibly want?" He demands as he stares at his beloved wife shackled to the hilt with power inhibiters.

"That wasn't me." Jubilee replies dejected. "Nick wants you."

"Sorry, Jubes." He apologizes as he manages to take his gaze momentarily from his pale, weeping wife. "What Nick? You couldn't possibly take more from me that you're taking now."

"I don't want to take her, Logan." He say's in a calm voice as he notices the look of longing passed between the two. "I have to. She killed a man that was to be put in our custody." He puts his hand to his chin as he drags on his cigar. "But… I suppose an arrangement can be reached as we don't have a facility to house an Alpha and you do."

"What are you talking about?" Logan snarls at the younger man as he steals a stogie from his pocket. "You had one made up just for an occasion like this. I help build it, for free.'

"Can't we just say you get what you pay for and I call it even?" Nick Fury tells him in his calm fashion. "Besides, after I ruined her first honeymoon to help save the world, I kind of owe her, even if it didn't work out."

"What are you getting at?" Logan asks as smoke curls it way from his nose.

"I keep an eye on her a couple days, you fix up a unit and you can have her back." He simplifies as he takes in another puff. "But she stays down here, does what she does for this team and she's your responsibility, for both good and bad."

"Why would you do this for me?" Logan half asks, half demands. "What is it you want."

"She did make my job much easier, but you? I'll need you to do a job for me." Nick Fury looks Logan dead in the eyes. "It involves the Hudsons."

"Unless it's kill one of them, I'll do it." Logan agrees.

"I'll see you in a few days." Fury smiles, his leathery skin creasing just so. "Summers! Help us get her to the truck!" Fury turns away to focus on Cyclops, a very angry and newly whole Cyclops.

"Don't do this, Fury." Scott says as he steps between the chained woman and the stocky man.

"This is hardly your problem, Summers. She hasn't been your problem for awhile." Fury taps on Scott's chest. "Besides, I'll bring your little doll back soon."

"Let me go with you." Scott requests. "She won't be alone that way."

"Isn't that sweet, playing the martyr? But you don't want that man over there to get jealous." He points to Logan, who watches the whole conversation. "What could you possibly still feel for her?"

"She saved my life, I want to do the same." Scott stands up to the seasoned man. "And don't touch me, Fury."

"Stop it, you two!" Jean manages to scream. "I'll go if that is what's best, but someone needs to finish my work."

"You shouldn't even be able to speak with the amount of inhibiters we've on you." Fury tells her surprised. "Ensign Genklow, increase the drip ten percent."

"Aye, Sir!" the ensign replies as the mixture of what feels like molten lava meeting freezing ocean pours through her veins. Jubilee watches wide- eyed as Jean's tortured expression calms into a lucid sleep. She places her hand back on Logan's back in a comforting gesture as she can feel him fight the urge to rip Fury a new one. The muscles twitch under his costume, as she can smell the distinct male scent wafting off his tense body.

"Calm down, Wolvie, or we'll never get her back!" She whispers into his ear and she noticed the hair rise slightly along his neck as her breath warms against it.

"How long, Fury?" Logan growls as he walks over to move a stray piece of Jean's fiery red hair away from her face and grace her delicate lips with the barest of kisses. "She's all that keeps me together."

"Look at that!" Fury exclaims. "You and the boy scout have something in common." He scratches his beard stubble. "I'll give the two of you a week to come up with something, barring any medical problems that may arise."

"What kind of problem?" Logan and Scott bark simultaneously.

"We'll know if we find them. I'll still see you in a few days, Logan" Fury looks back as he pushes Scott into service. "And no, you mayn't come Boy Scout, I just need your optic blasts a minute. I ever tell you that island woman never came out of her own world?"

"What was that about?" Jubilee ponders confused.

"What that means is we don't get her back until I do what he wants." Logan spits. "I'm going to get out of this uniform. Gambit, watch the brats, I got work to do."

"Mais oui." Gambit replies. "Has anybody seen Oscar?"


	4. Chapter 4

Do I really have to keep telling you I don't own this?

Everything You Can't Undo.

"Logan?" She whispers as she slips into his warm bed, the twitching of his body lets her know he knows she's there. "Are you still awake?"

"Go back to bed, little girl." He growls. "You don't need to be here." It's not safe to be here, He's not safe to be with, but she almost needs to be near him. It's a compulsive need, she knows as her body slinks as a cat does when it chases its prey. "You aren't some cheap Lolita."

"Like a cheap woman would help you get over Jean?" She coyly asks, her tone completely meaning the word "Forget" rather than "Get Over."

"I've got something nasty I gotta take care of in Canada tomorrow so I can get her back, there ain't any "Getting over" to do. Now get out of my bed and go pack for school." He snarls as he pushes the covers aside and walks across the room, his back illuminated in the pale blue moonlight. "You're just a little girl, Jubilee, don't play with the fire of a full grown man."

"I'm no little girl, Logan. Or do the grown-ups call you James now?" She hisses at him in a low, sultry tone. "Look at me, Logan and tell me I'm just a child." She demands respect from him, respect that even though is tainted by a father – daughter relationship, is still a very adult sexual respect. The soft light splashing down her filled out body as her black silk clad breasts are prominently displayed in the celestial glow.

"Look, what you're going through is the Electra complex, you can look it up when you go back to school." He's still turned around and she knows it's because he's in boxers and boxers hide so very little in the wrong times.

"I'm not going back to that school, Logan." She slips out of bed, her arms folded across her chest in a stubborn stance. "I'm needed here."

"I can't tell you what to do, but you're making a mistake." He tells her, finally able to face her adult to adult. She crosses the room, bridging the gab between the two.

"If I'm making a mistake, let it be mine to make." She says as she puts a soft hand to his stubbly face.

"Don't do this, Jubilee. I'm not this type and neither are you." He says as he steps back slightly.

"Shh, Logan, I've seen you with all kinds of women." She whispers. "I was always so jealous of each and every one of them, silly man. Whatever made you think you could be a dedicated family man?" Her fingers pressed to his lips to silence any more protests. "I don't want to be alone. You don't want to be alone, we're doing nothing wrong." As she leans in to kiss him, but his phone rings, It's Cecilia.

"What is it, Doc?" He asks, almost too happy for the relief.

"I've just gotten to the reproductive organs on Rachel, there's something you and Scott need to see." She tells him. He can tell she's still saddened by the loss of Hank, so saddened, that until S.H.I.L.D. forced her into it, she refused to set foot on Xavier's property ever again.

"I'll be right there, Cecilia." Logan says, and then hangs up. "I gotta go, and you need to evaluate yourself and tell me when I come back from Canada how you really feel. I'm telling you, you don't feel about me the way you think."

"I want to explore those feelings now, Logan." She purrs, but she knows he won't stay as he pulls his pants up and pulls on his signature white shirt. Soon, he's gone and she's alone in a room that's not her own and wondering how she let herself become this.

As he walks into the med-lab, shaking off the feelings fuddling his mind, he sees Scott and Cecilia. He can't help but think how odd it is to see Scott whole, but he looks haunted. "What is it?' Logan asks.

"Put on a mask and I'll show you." Cecilia tells him. Even with the mask, the stench is a little much for Logan's nose. "It's this."

"Shit!" Logan exclaims despite himself. "What is that? An egg?"

"It's Rachel. She didn't have time to rebuild herself somewhere in space as her mother does, she had to do this internally, just as this form died." Cecilia tells him. "We could have her back."

"What have we got to do?" Scott asks, still unsure of his new jaw and features. "Jean would know."

"What if we burned the body?" Logan suggests.

"Absolutely not!" Scott protests, "She's my daughter!"

"She's Jean's daughter too Scott, and like mother like daughter." Cecilia tells him. "If the Phoenix rises from the ashes, she might too. Nothing is lost."

"But what if we are wrong and we kill her all over again?" Scott questions. "I don't think I could live with that again."

"Could you live with not trying to save her?" Logan asks. "We've got to try."

"O.K. Do it, but don't let any of the children see. That means a special look out for Oscar, the little trouble maker has a way of being places he shouldn't." Scott orders as he is in his element when that element is control.

"Right now?" Cecilia asks as she prepares to wheel the body out.

"Yes now!" Scott barks. "Logan's got to leave soon and if she does return berserk, he's the only one capable of surviving it long enough to save our behinds."

"Gee, thanks." Logan grumbles as he goes to check all students are fast asleep. "What do you use to burn a body, anyways?"

"Very hot fire." Cecilia tells him as she turns to Scott. "Don't you take that tone with me, man! I'll smack your new jaw clean off your face and have that feeding bag reattached."

"What about how the Vikings did it?" Scott asks as he ignores her threats. "That might generate enough heat?"

"Are you stupid? Hay and an arrow on fire just made a human barbeque for the fish that ate it after the funeral raft sank." Cecilia says. "We need a crematory or a lot of cow dung and gas."

"I think Cable might be able to help us, he should remember how the Askani did funeral preparations." Scott thinks. Cable grew up then with his half- sister, he'd remember the things they did for their clan.

"So, call him" And that was all that was said.

Cable was there less that thirty seconds after called with everything needed for the burning. Cable's ability to teleport with the aid of Greymalkin was often spoke of, but until now, Cecilia had never seen it. "That was amazing!"

"This is it?" Scott asks.

"That's all you need." He replies unable to look at his sisters' eviscerated body. "You're not a blood member of the clan, I'll have to do this." He rubs her body down with the fragrant oil that can only be found from the depths of time and far away places modern man has not yet given name to. "Where is she to be moved for the burning?" He asks, almost disgusted with what he's had to do as he places the dried plant laurels on her corpse.

"To the yard by the boathouse, that way, none of the children can see." Scott tells him. It's always hard for him to think that this old man is the baby he sent to the future so many years ago, so many thoughts and doubts about whether he had done the right thing, so many wasted nights questioning as to why God allowed his son to be so sick, only to find that the universe was made right by all he'd suffered. "Just make sure Oscar stays put."

"Lay her out on that concrete table." Cable orders. When she is lain out, Cable throws a match on her cloth covered form and instantly, blue flames begin to consume the body, a ball of orange and red takes shape through the azure flame, forming a new Rachel out of it, her naked body stepping through and hovering before touching ground.

"Rachel?" Scott and Cecilia ask in disbelief as Rachel takes a breath and Cecilia's heart pound as though it's grown wings to flutter out of her chest.

"I was wondering when you guys would get it." She laughs as Cable hands her some clothes. "Who figured it out?"

"Logan did." Cable tells her. "He's over there, the Askani oil was too much for his nose."

"Not Mom?" She asks confused. "Where is she? Hmmnn. There is something wrong. Did Mom kill somebody?"

"Yes, to save me." Scott says as he steps forward to hug his daughter. "Much has happened since you've been gone."

"That can all wait." Cecilia butts in. "What happened to you and how did you create that egg without your powers."

"I made it with the last bit of energy I had as they threw that cloth over my body. I can't tell you what it was, but I couldn't move, I couldn't even use my telepathy. I had to just take everything they did to that body for a month, then, when they got tired of it, the little one broke my neck, just to feel powerful, I guess. Here comes Jubilee."

"No changing the subject young lady!" Cecilia orders. "You need to tell us everything! Whatever they did to you can be done to the rest of us!"

"It's foggy right now, Doctor." She says. "But it wasn't the F.O.A." She huddles into the coat Cable puts on her. "I really just want to sleep right now."

"Nathan, Could you take your sister inside?" Scott asks, as he looks kindly at the love shared between his children. Maybe, one day, it would stretch to his younger children.

"Dad?" Rachel says as she walks away.

"Yes, Rachel?" He smiles as she has seldom ever even talked to him after he married Emma.

"I'm sorry." She looks away.

"I know, we can talk about this later." He hugs her with all his might as Logan manages to get away from Jubilee to greet Rachel the same.

"How you doin' Kiddo?" He asks as Jubilee's eyes glisten in the early morning light. She's not as happy to see Rachel as she would like to be.

"I'm alright, you just make sure this thing you're doing in Canada is what you want to be doing." She stares at him. "You know how Mom's going to feel about this."

"You know?" He asks in wonderment. "No one knows what I'm really goin' up there to do."

"No one else around here can hear your thoughts like a fog horn." She laughs at him wearily. "Hello, Jubilee. I'd love to stay and chat, but being dead takes a lot out of a person." With that, she goes inside. There's a lot to be said, done and contended with, but it will have to wait.

"I think she knows what you've been up to." Logan says. "And we'll talk about this when I get back in a couple days. Don't think we won't." He promises as he starts back to his house to load his gear on his motorcycle and drive off into the morning air, the suns red, rising light behind him, as he heads to do few knows what up north.

"O.K. Logan." She looks down, her lips craving for the warm contact of another, only to look up and see Cecilia and Scott performing C.P.R. on her.

"She's awake!" Cecilia shouts. "I've got a pulse."

"What happened?" Jubilee hacks and coughs. "How did I get here?"

"Don't talk, you've been though a traumatic experience, don't look at your arm." Cecilia barks as she wheels Jubilee into the Med-Lab.

"When Rachel came back, so did Victor somehow. He got to you first." Scott informs her as they start oxygen and an I.V bag into her good arm. "The others are containing him now."


	5. Brothers and Other HalfTruths

Because I don't own this, I have to tell you.

Brothers and Other Half-Truths.

He should have known something was wrong, he should have, but he didn't. He should have never come here, and he never would have if it weren't for the woman he loves, he came to save her. He came to get her back, but for the most part, he doesn't know why he came, but every cell in his body screams he's just made one of the bigger mistakes in life.

"You're not James." He frowns as he advances on the man partially hidden by shadows, however, on the part of his face not obscured by the dark thrown by Logan's own figure across the man, lay the tell tale marks of whom this man is.

"No, I'm not, but I am so glad you remember." A smile creeps to the face of this tall, very light brown haired man, exaggerating the claw marks ripped into his face. "Hello, little brother."

"Dog." He snarls as his claws extend ready for a fight. "I'm not your brother and what have you done with James and Heather?"

"But of course you are, James. Have you never seen our father?" He grins, his sharp pearly teeth glinting in the partial sun as he walks out from Logan's shadow and around to face him. "You are his spitting image. It's almost like having him here, drinking his life away, perhaps even beating me again." He pauses for a breath and perhaps dramatic effect. "James and Heather are fine. I had you sent here."

"My father was John." Logan growls.

"Pitiful fool. Your mother so wanted a son that your father could not produce, that she reduced herself into an affair with my father. Your "father" adopted you." He looks down on the short man with disdain. "You never belonged in high society, you belonged in that rickety shack with me."

"He was too good to me. You're lying." He snarls.

"Divorce wasn't an option, and John did have a place in his heart for castaways, like your precious Rose." He shakes his body cockily. "Tell me, you do remember Rose?"

"Leave her out of this and tell me what you want, Dog." He demands, as he grows tired of the man's grandstanding.

"She looked eerily like your current wife." Dog snickers. "How is your wife? A man really should be good to his sister-in-law."

"Don't you even think about Jean." Logan threatens. "She's done nothing to you."

"Except kill my son." Dog grimaces. "You and our father really do have so much in common, for instance, you both chase after women above you. You manage to get those women, I presume you stole yours as well, and you always loose, spending years wallowing in your own self pity and drinking. How pathetic."

"Victor isn't dead." Logan tells him bluntly. "My step-daughter brought him back. He attacked innocent children."

"So you've known. Hmmp. Did he get to that tart you've been fooling around with?" Dog feigns intrigue. "I had thought that I had Rachel killed."

Logan stands strait in shock, almost disbelief. "You had that done? Why?"

"You remember your teammate, Pulse, yes? He owed me and from what I saw, he was glad to do it." He asks. "Does she remember much yet? I'd love to be there when she recognizes my face."

"You sadistic bastard!"

"Oh, wait, dear brother, that's only the tip of it. You remember your puppy? Do you remember taking Rose from me and everything your loving stepfather did to my father, including robbing him of the love of his life?" Dog's eyes turned an animal like nighttime red. "Do you remember killing my father? I do believe it's time for payback."

"My father is dead, Dog. If you want a fight, pick it with me." Logan barks angrily. " Be a man and leave my family out of this."

"I'm sorry, James, but they are how I'm going to repay you." He laughs psychotically as he throws down a long lock of fire red hair. "Fury was ordered by his superiors to give her to me, and now, I'm going to take the love of YOUR life away from you. I had sent my son and a few people in my employ to take care of this, but my sources failed to inform me that you were on your honeymoon, but the loss of many of your friends and children in your care was worth the expense. You lose again, little brother."

"Do whatever you want to me, just leave her alone!" Logan barters. "Where is she?"

"How would you feel having to raise my sons?" He glares insanely. "You enjoyed books when you were young, guess which one I'm thinking of? The only thing is, I really only fancy the thought of your wife crawling away from me after I beat her into nothing. Care to watch?" He waits for an answer. "Of course not. What if I did what I had in store for your wife, to Jubilee?"

"You won't get out of this room to do it." Logan threatens. "You know you can't beat me."

"Not so, brother. My abilities were slow to come to fruition, as I cannot heal the damage you've done to me in the past, but without MY healing factor being inhibited by that heavy metal laced on your skeleton, I'm sure I can heal much faster than you now. For once, I am now your better." He extends the claws he was so late in getting from his fingernails. "Besides, you'll never get her back, not even in the pieces I might have already shredded her into, without me getting out of this room."

"She'd tear you apart in seconds." Logan smiles as he thinks of his wife. "I saw the video of how she does it, and it ain't pleasant."

"I have Pulse to help with that. Once I had his mind destroyed, he really enjoys inflicting that kind of pain on people. You should see what I had him do to Marrow."

"We always thought she…" Logan thinks back to the young girl who so closely mimicked him in his feral state.

"No happy ending there, brother." Dog informs him. "I have her scalp on display at my home for all to see. I'm so very delighted that you remember her because your mother's estate paid to have her killed, and perhaps your wife, what a wonderful gift from her new family."

"What turned you like this?"

"My father pined every day for his weak, little runt of a son and that child's mother. He never loved me as much as you because you were her son, he beat me, ridiculed me, but you, no! You were his golden child and what did you do, you killed him. For that, you're going to suffer as much as I can make you, I know you'll heal, but I'm going to drink your blood, and then maybe hers too." He bears his teeth. "I made sure my son hated you as much as I do, I beat him the same way as my father did me, I made him believe it was your fault. Not even Weapon X and it's brainwashing could remove that deep-seated resentment. Now, shut up and fight because I've got other things to do after I paint these walls with your carcass."

"Give her to me."

"You aren't in a position to demand anything, James. Why don't you pick up that lock of hair, because it's all you'll ever have of her again, and maybe, if I feel kind, I'll throw the Hudson's bodies into the mix."

" You said they were fine." Logan argued, stalling for time. Villains, almost always if given time, spill information about their plans. Maybe Dog is too stupid not to.

"They're not in any pain, anymore. Isn't this something of an anniversary for you? Jean would be flattered that you're here and not in Japan." Dog looks at him in a way just to anger him. "Didn't another woman you promised to love forever die today? I don't see you carving any of her killer's body parts off."

"How did you know about Mariko?" Logan demands as he rushes towards Dog with a mortal intent, the wounds he inflicts healing instantly. "How long have you been watching me?"

His reward is five very sharp claws ripping him crotch and upwards. "I also burnt your cabin to the ground in the laurels. I had Silver Fox reburied, face down."

"I'm going to take you down, right here and right now. Monsters like you shouldn't be allowed to live."

"And I'm going to drink from your metal skull."

"Come and try to get it."


End file.
